苏格兰银行正筹划套现Bank of China的持股，预计套现24亿美金

(Updates with potential profit, pending joint statement, need for fundraising, RBS's original stake purchase, Li Ka Shing Foundation and UBS sales.)HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS:royal bk scotland group plc spons adr 20 ordNews , chart , profile , more Last: 14.93-1.77-10.60%4:00pm 01/13/2009Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolioAnalystCreate alertInsiderDiscussFinancialsSponsored by:RBS 14.93, -1.77, -10.6%) has started selling its entire 4.3% stake in Bank of China Ltd. (3988.HK) Tuesday, potentially raising up to US$2.37 billion, people familiar with the matter told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.The 10.8 billion Hong Kong-listed H shares are being sold at HK$1.68-HK$1.71 each, a 7.6%-9.1% discount to their HK$1.85 closing price Tuesday.Morgan Stanley (MS:morgan stanley com newNews , chart , profile , more Last: 18.86+0.07+0.37%4:01pm 01/13/2009Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolioAnalystCreate alertInsiderDiscussFinancialsSponsored by:MS 18.86, +0.07, +0.4%) and RBS are joint bookrunners on the sale.RBS bought those shares in 2005 for GBP900 million, or HK$1.14 each, according to analysts, and could thus make a profit of up to HK$6.16 billion (US$790 million) from the sale, despite the decline in the Chinese bank's shares in the past year. Bank of China shares fell 44% in 2008 and are down 13% this year.Earlier, Wang Zhaowen, a spokesman at Bank of China, China's second-biggest bank by assets, said the two banks will issue a joint statement shortly, without elaborating.Any proceeds from a sale would help the U.K. bank, which has pledged to redeem the GBP5 billion preference shares issued to the U.K. government at a coupon of 12% in the next 18 months.RBS bought the shares in Bank of China ahead of the latter's Hong Kong initial public offering three years ago. It led a syndicate, including a foundation owned by Li Ka-shing, one of Asia's richest men, Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER), hedge funds D.E. Shaw & Co. and Och-Ziff Capital Management LLC (OZM), and private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management LLC, in paying a total of US$3.1 billion for a 10% pre-IPO stake in the Chinese lender.The lockup period for the syndicate's shares expired Dec. 31.The Li Ka Shing Foundation raised US$511 million last week from its sale of 2 billion of its 5 billion Bank of China shares, just days after UBS AG (UBS) sold its entire 1.33% stake in Bank of China for US$808 million.UBS kicked off the trend of Western banks selling their China bank stakes to build up their balance sheets with its Bank of China stake sale on New Year's Eve. Bank of America Corp. (BAC) trimmed its China Construction Bank Corp. (0939.HK) holding last week.